EquaMetrics' app is simply designed and since its software firepower comes from the cloud, it doesn't require anything more than the typical PC. You can drag and drop colored tiles to assemble your own algorithm. Day traders can choose between 30 variables to build their formulas. The options are built on so-called technical indicators, metrics that reflect trading patterns as opposed to stock fundamentals such as the price-earnings ratio. After you're done, you run the program to buy and sell stocks and currencies.

Ivey offers two defenses. First, EquaMetrics isn't offering high frequency trading, which is the business of Knight Capital and involves buying and selling hundreds of times per second. In fact, EquaMetrics allows traders to assemble strategies that scan stocks or currencies no faster than once a minute. (Ivey's own best performing programs kick in just once a day.) Second, the company isn't targeting widows or laypeople looking to play with their retirement accounts. Though there's no minimum to invest, early EquaMetrics clients are either sophisticated traders who buy and sell on technical indicators, or institutional investors who want to assemble an automated trading system but can't afford to hire a quantitative programmer.

The web application only costs $99 a month or $250 a month, depending on your chosen cocktail of algorithms.